Wednesday, February 9 – Public officers from the Department of Disaster Management (DDM) and the Town and Country Planning Department (TCP) strengthened their public speaking skills in a two-day workshop facilitated by Communications Specialist Dr. Derry Hodge of The Heritage Institute, Clinton, Washington.
The workshop which started on Monday focused on confident public speaking skills where officers participated in presentations, verbal reports, impromptu discussions, speech delivery, and informal dialogues.
According to the Director of DDM Ms. Sharleen DaBreo, training is necessary so that officers can clearly and adequately provide the best advice and information about the department’s objectives, programmes, initiatives, ongoing projects and developments in an effective and professional way.
“Our officers are often asked to make public presentations. Our goal is to be proactive and to always find effective ways of increasing the capacity and skills sets of the staff through professional development opportunities,” Ms. DaBreo said.
Both departments pooled resources together to collectively benefit from the training. Ms. DaBreo and Mrs. Titley-Smith said that having their departments collaborate on this initiative is another creative and innovative way of being cost efficient and productive at the same time.
Dr. Hodge, who is the Director of the institute, said he is pleased with the outcome of the workshop because officers were open to constructive feedback and had a passion for enhancing their public delivery skills.
The DDM, in keeping with their mandate to increase the capacity and skills level among the staff through professional development training will continue to do so individually and collectively in order to more effectively address stakeholder needs.
